With the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic slowing down and the Karnataka government lifting restrictions in a phased manner, Gulbarga University has decided to organise examinations for undergraduate and postgraduate courses for 2020-21 from July 15.
Addressing mediapersons at the university conference hall in Kalaburagi on Friday, Vice-chancellor Prof. Dayanand Agsar said that examinations for I, III and V semesters of undergraduate courses and I and III semesters of postgraduate courses would commence on July 15. Those for 2nd, 4th and 6th semesters of undergraduate and 2nd and 4th semesters of postgraduate programmes would be held after September 20. Classes for the academic year 2021-22 would start by November 2021.
In the backdrop of discussions on whether Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) should be adopted for saving time on evaluation, Mr. Agsar made it clear that the university would continue with descriptive questions.
“It is true that MCQ model saves a lot of time as the answer-sheets are evaluated by computers. But, that model of examination would adversely impact students’ career. We would not go for it. Whatever the gaps created due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdowns in the academic year 2020-21 would be covered in 2021-22 by optimum utilisation of time. We will then be ready for the uniform academic calendar planned by the Department of Higher Education,” he said.
Four-year degree course
As part of the university’s commitment to implement the National Education Policy – 2020 (NEP-2020), Mr. Agsar said that he was planning to replace the three-year degree course with a four-year one in a phased manner from the next academic year.
“All the universities in Karnataka have been asked to replace three-year degree courses with four-year ones as envisaged in NEP-2020. Since this cannot be done uniformly in all the universities simultaneously owing to various reasons involving infrastructure, manpower and other issues, the universities have been asked to do it in a phased manner taking into account the specific issues pertaining to individual universities. We are making preparations. We would, to start with, introduce the four-year degree in a few courses at least from the next academic year,” Mr. Agsar said.
He added that students who have completed the three-year undergraduate course would have a two-year postgraduate programme, and those who complete a four-year degree would have a one-year degree programme.